I was recently having quite a spirited discussion with a colleague of mine on the subject of serial killers, and we were both questioning precisely what is it that makes true crime stories so captivating? What is it about recountings of the grisly, gruesome crimes of other people that manages to be so alluring? From…
Rushmore (1998)
There was a time when Wes Anderson was not the overly-stylistic auteur who was known for his films that could be reduced to nothing more than just a bundle of quirks set to a retro soundtrack and an abundance of bright colours. I understand that I have often come across as being extremely critical of…
The Private Affairs of Bel Ami (1947)
With what is undeniably one of his masterworks, The Private Affairs of Bel Ami, Albert Lewin did something quite astonishing – he took a very formal premise garnered from a classic French text and morphed it into a remarkable achievement, a positively riveting affair that is scandalous without being cheap, and exhilarating without losing its…
An Evening with Beverly Luff Linn (2018)
A few years ago, I was one of the most ardent supporters of Jim Hosking’s solo directorial debut, The Greasy Strangler. It was a film that appealed to me based on my adoration for the trashy transgression of John Waters and his rebellious contemporaries in the underground film industry, as well as someone who really…
Juliet, Naked (2018)
Juliet, Naked doesn’t do or say anything we have not seen countless times before. In many ways, it is a traditional, by-the-numbers romantic comedy that we has been made so many times throughout the years. Yet, how is it possible that such a conventional film manages to be one of the very best of the…
Three Identical Strangers (2018)
Many of us have often fantasized about the possibility of turning the corner and being confronted with ourselves. It is a common belief that somewhere in the world, we have a doppelganger, and the likelihood of us meeting this person who is identical to us is astronomically small, but it is nonetheless an enduring and…
Searching (2018)
David Kim (John Cho) is an ordinary man living in San Jose with his daughter, Margot (Michelle La), the archetypal teenage girl who loves her friends and is constantly frustrated with her father, who has raised her single-handedly since the death of her mother and David’s wife. However, when Margot doesn’t return home one evening,…
First Man (2018)
When I opted to watch First Man, I was doing it for a number of reasons: my loyalty towards Damien Chazelle, who I find to be a massively talented filmmaker (and one that, despite the criticisms of his detractors, has not come close to peaking yet, even if his breakthrough moments with Whiplash and La…
Dispersed Clouds (1951)
Dispersed Clouds is the kind of film that makes me truly appreciate cinema – a small and intimate social drama that has an explosively powerful message at its core and an execution that understands the human condition with incredible profundity, a film that always does more than it says and ends up being a magnificent…
Scorpio Rising (1963)
“I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix, angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night” ~ Allen Ginsberg, “Howl” In the history of experimental cinema, very…
The Postmodern Pelican 